The Dutch on the Ice
The Old Game
Before the links, the ice; before the rulebook, the winter afternoon.
c. 1600–1650
The game’s frozen ancestor: the Dutch playing colf and kolf on the ice, four centuries before the word “golf” settled down. Avercamp and van der Neer painted it as part of the crowd — the colf players share the ice with skaters, gossips, and dogs. The house opens here on purpose. Sourced from the Rijksmuseum’s open-access holdings; public domain by centuries.
Why this school is here
Kolf — the Ice Game
The Low Countries · 1600–1700
The Dutch winter game played with a curved club and a leather ball, on the ice. The ancestor. Painted centuries ago — public domain many times over.
Collections
In the wing
The Old Game
Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters (Colf on the Ice)
The Dutch on the ice, colf clubs in hand, four centuries before the word “golf” settled down.
The Old Game
Frozen Waterway with Villagers Playing Kolf
The kolf swing on the frozen river, the old game at the golden hour.
The Old Game
The Golf-Player
Rembrandt etched a kolf player in 1654 — the greatest hand in Dutch art, on the old game.
The Old Game
Sports on a Frozen River
Van der Neer’s winter river, kolf among the skaters — the game inside the weather.
The Old Game
Ice Skaters on the Amstel at Amsterdam
The oldest sheet in the house — 1589, the ice already full of the game.
The Old Game
Kolfspeler (The Kolf Player)
A single player, club grounded, from the Rijksmuseum’s print room.
The Old Game
Het Kolfspel (The Game of Kolf)
The game named on its own plate, 1654 — the ancestor with a title.
The Old Game
Skaters and Kolfers on the Ice
Avercamp’s own drawing, titled for the kolfers — the game named by the painter.
The Old Game
A Scene on the Ice near a Town
The National Gallery’s Avercamp — the winter panorama at full wall scale.
The Old Game
IJsvermaak (Winter Amusement)
The nephew carrying on the family trade — the second Avercamp in the house.
The Old Game
Winter on the Vijverberg, The Hague
A prince on the ice in 1618 — the winter game with the court in attendance.
The Old Game
A Girl with a Kolf Club and Her Mother
The game indoors, in a child’s hands, before it belonged to clubs.
The Old Game
Boy Playing Golf
Ter Borch drew a boy at the game around 1615 — a named master, on a child.
The Old Game
Portrait of a Boy with a Kolf Club
1631: a child painted in oils holding the game like an inheritance.
The Old Game
Kolven op het IJs (Kolf on the Ice)
The game named as itself, on the ice, at wall scale.
The Old Game
Winter Landscape near a Town with Kolf Players
Van der Neer at full size at last — the winter light the house was named for.